French police break up online arms trafficking ring
French police have broken up a huge online trafficking ring and taken 44 people into custody in simultaneous dawn raids on Tuesday morning all over France.
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Police seized several hundred weapons including assault rifles, pistols, revolvers and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Many of those arrested were gun collectors but about a dozen have long criminal records, according to police.
They say the operation aimed to highlight the grey area between the world of collectors and criminals.
Although the internet makes it easier for collectors to fall in with the wrong kind of people, the police are exaggerating the link, long-time gun collector Luc Guillon told RFI.
The weapons were supposed to have been made inoperative but some could easily have been restored to use.
The traffic came to light when in February when an assault rifle was found at the home of a man who had already been convicted for armed robbery.
In March police rounded up a large number of suspects and seized 300 weapons in the south-western city of Perpignan and in Feburary 36 people were detained and 430 weapons seized in the eastern city of Nancy.
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